Flat Tire and Traffic: Yellow Line, Red Zone, Green Zone
Flat tire. First thing Sunday morning. Luckily, in our home parking lot. The jack was rusty. Quickly concluded we needed to call for road service. Easily resolved. Lucky. At home. Sit and have another coffee in your home kitchen. Morning swim compromised. Late for work. Postpone morning Zoom. Postpone morning office meeting. Lucky. Waiting at home. Not in a tent in Gaza with puddles of muddy sand surrounding me.
At home. Bodies of three hostages still not returned from Gaza. The yellow ribbon necklace still around my neck and #BringThemHomeNow bracelet still on my wrist. #UntilTheLastHostage magnet still on my car and yellow ribbons still tied to my car mirrors – same ribbons tied a week after the war began.
Thunderstorms last Thursday night. Our second-grader granddaughter told us Friday morning that the thunder disturbed her sleep. She said it sounded like Iran. I asked if her almost four-year-old sister was frightened as she was by air raid sirens. “Oh no,” she said, “the war’s over.” Relief. Remembering telling her that a month ago and then worrying I’d be proven wrong. Still waiting for bodies of three hostages to be returned home.
Still media reaching Israelis fail to represent the plot of homeless and hungry Gazan children – and adults. Documentaries, alternative press reports, reels, social media posts largely dismissed if they reach Israelis at all. Palestinian citizens of Israel more likely reached, more likely silent. To be accurate, silenced.
The plan of the President of the United States, the “not war, not peace” arrangement as a Qatari official called it has a red zone and a green zone on each side of the yellow line. If there’s a traffic light analogy here, I’d ask Waze to recalculate my route. Change must come faster at some other intersection.
But then mainstream Israeli news – and I’m describing, not criticizing – still largely focuses on the war. Stories of the returned hostages. Stories told by families who lost loved ones on October 7. Stories of brave actions of people who saved lives and lost their own, and those who survived, and the government that fails to assume responsibility. This keeps the demand for a Committee of Inquiry on the public agenda. The government appointed a committee today, the kind that will whitewash its failures, the kind that will continue the judicial turnover it began before the war in 2023.
The news, its critical role in remembering events, and panels, contributing to variations on an evolving narrative. Nuances limited to the margins. Because the resonating narrative evades lateral fields of vision. Fragile. Fragile confronting post trauma shatters. Unprepared for considering how today’s children will answer their children when they ask, “Where was my grandfather during the war? Where was your aunt? Where was your cousin? Were they oblivious to the war crimes? Genocide?”
But let the news distract us. Maybe it will generate some critical public thinking despite itself. At least, many war stories conclude with demands for an independent Committee of Inquiry.
Between that news agenda, and reports on occurrences of the day, government tactics and manipulation seep into public consciousness. Additional opportunities for Minister of National Security Ben Gvir to delegitimate and accuse the Attorney General of sabotaging his work.
Dull. No air raid sirens. A government with 2026 as an election year on its mind. Democracy? Most Israelis recognize democracy as we thought we knew it is that rug pulled out from under our feet. That’s a trip we need to avoid by the traffic light the peace plan placed at the intersection.
Feeling helpless. Energy depletion? Tired? Not a luxury we can afford.
Settlers. Really? Well, the 250 activists perpetrating crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank are not all settlers. Not all settlers endorse these crimes. Refraining from asking how Jews can live in the West Bank considering these circumstances. I realize that poses the question of how I can live in Israel considering policies implemented by the government. Clinging to “we are not our government.” But can we stop this? It seems the only mechanism is engaging foreign leaders to place pressure on Israel. A Palestinian village near Bethlehem was set afire yesterday, just days after Jewish settlers set a mosque ablaze in the West Bank.
Today, two Palestinians ran over and stabbed Israeli civilians in Gush Etzion. Security forces eliminated the terrorists on the spot. An Israeli government narrative says there are no Jewish terrorists. Jewish extremists burning Palestinian homes. Law enforcement and security forces apparently lack the mandate to arrest Jewish offenders. A lame government statement of condemnation. A satirical television program portrays it. Extensive government cutbacks on funding creative productions not surprising.
I couldn’t make this up: Monday, different tire, flat tire. Taken in stride. But livid. Enraged. Democracy. Flat tire.
Harriet Gimpel, November 18, 2025
